Vatican moves to ban all sex-change priests, nuns

February 2 2003
The Sun-Herald

The Vatican has demanded that members of religious orders who change their sex should be expelled, while transsexuals must not enter religious orders in the first place, according to a document published by Catholic news agency Adista.

The document, which the Vatican did not want to make public, makes it clear the church has been forced to face head-on the question of transsexuality.

The document was signed by Cardinal Eduardo Martinez Somalo, the Vatican's head of religious orders, and urged its recipients not to divulge the contents, owing to "the delicacy and complexity of the situation".

The document said any member of a religious order who had a sex change "must be expelled from the religious house for the good of all the souls".

It also said priests did not have the right to change baptism registers to take account of a believer's new gender, even if the change was recognised by civil authorities. ");document.write("

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The document also quotes the Vatican's head of doctrine, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, as firmly rejecting the admission of transsexuals into religious orders.

"When there is a sensible doubt over the presence of transsexualism due to obvious external attitudes and evidence given by those charged with selecting candidates, the Superior can demand a careful medical and psychological examination," he said.